Marble hemp palm
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Juvenile marble hemp palm ( Trachycarpus princeps ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Trachycarpus princeps | ||||||||||||
| Spanner , Gibbons & San Y.Chen |
The marble hemp palm ( Trachycarpus princeps ) is a species from the palm family (Arecaceae).
features
The marble hemp palm is a solitary, frost-tolerant palm. The trunk reaches a height of 10 m and is, as is typical for hemp palms, densely woven with a bast.
leaves
The leaves are convex on the top and triangular on the underside. The petioles reach a length of up to 80 cm, the fronds themselves reach a further 60–80 cm and a width of 90–115 cm. The top is greenish, while the underside usually has a whitish wax film. Typically, the fronds divide roughly in half into 45–48 segments.
Flower and fruits
The palm typically develops inflorescences from a height of 1 m. The palm is bisexual, but hermaphrodites are possible, but are extremely rare. The male inflorescence reaches a maximum length of 50 cm, the female of up to 75 cm. The fruit heads are golden yellow when ripe, and the 1 cm large fruits have a kidney shape. The kidney-shaped and brownish seeds are slightly smaller.
Occurrence
The marble hemp palm grows on the steep cliffs of the Shi Men Guan (English: stone gate ) in the Nujiang district, part of the Chinese province of Yunnan, and in the monsoon forests at its feet . It is conditionally moisture and frost tolerant.
Systematics
Trachycarpus princeps was discovered in 1995 in Yunnan , China , and was first described by Tobias W. Spanner , Martin Gibbons and San Y.Chen . Because of its lofty shape and its natural location on cliffs, the species received the name princeps (Latin for "prince", cf. English prince ). Within the palm family it belongs to the subfamily Coryphoideae.
In 2006, an expedition that was in the region to harvest seeds for the cultivation of the palm found a variant with bluish undersides of the fronds and green tops. Their taxonomic status is controversial.
Web links
- Trachycarpus princeps from Kewscience, accessed May 1, 2018.